That chain began when Ricciardo was released from the pits on his final stop with the left front tire not properly attached. The team wheeled him back to his box and he lost a lap in the process. Adding salt to the wound, the FIA tagged Ricciardo with a 10-spot grid penalty for Bahrain after deeming the incident an unsafe release.

The fact that the endings to his races in Melbourne and Sepang have come down to bad luck and not him is probably cold comfort. With nothing to show for his hard work so far, Ricciardo appears to feel the urgency to leave the desert with a good points haul this weekend.

“In terms of aggression…Well, it’s not going to be any less,” Ricciardo said of his mindset going into Bahrain on Red Bull Racing’s web site. “I’m going to Bahrain thinking that I have to be starting 11th, and need an aggressive start to get me back into contention.

“I need to get some points on the board and that’s not going to happen if I’m cruising around in the middle of the pack. That said, I don’t think I need to change anything much. I think I’m driving with good intensity, so I don’t need to do anything dramatically different.”

As for the matter of catching Mercedes, it appears that Red Bull isn’t as far off as people were expecting them to be after their dismal preseason testing.

Ricciardo isn’t sure how the Bahrain International Circuit’s array of long straights will suit his and Vettel’s Renault-powered RB10s, but feels confident that the team can catch up to Merc when the series comes to tracks where downforce is more highlighted.

“I think the car itself, aerodynamically and mechanically, is competitive,” Ricciardo said. “We know we’re a little bit down on straightline speed and that really hurts somewhere like Sepang – though through Sector 2 [the twisty section], we were strong all weekend and on the pace of the Mercs.

“We’ll see how Bahrain treats us but once we get to China and – even better – Barcelona, I think we can really take the fight to them.”